Charles Saatchi: police caution for holding Nigella's throat was 'better than alternative of this hanging over us for months'

Charles Saatchi: police caution for holding Nigella's throat was 'better than alternative of this hanging over us for months'

Charles Saatchi: police caution for holding Nigella's throat was 'better than alternative of this hanging over us for months'

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Charles Saatchi: said he didn't want this 'hanging over all of us'

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Saatchi and his wife Nigella Lawson

Millionaire art collector Charles Saatchi spoke today about why he took a police caution for assaulting his wife Nigella Lawson.

He said he voluntarily attended a police station where he was questioned for four hours yesterday about pictures which showed him grabbing his wife Nigella Lawson around the throat during an argument outside a Mayfair restaurant.

He told the Standard today: "Although Nigella made no complaint I volunteered to go to Charing Cross station and take a police caution after a discussion with my lawyer because I thought it was better than the alternative of this hanging over all of us for months."

So far, Ms Lawson, one of Britain’s favourite cookery writers and the host of a number of cookery TV shows, has refused to comment on the incident.

Her spokesman has confirmed only that she and her children have left the family home but would not say whether this was permanent.

However, friends say the couple appeared relaxed and normal in the days following the argument at Scott’s restaurant, even holding two dinner parties for family and friends at their London home.

They said the couple were known to have occasional arguments but there was nothing in their relationship to suggest anything more serious.

Scotland Yard announced details of the caution last night saying that officers from the Community Safety Unit at Westminster were aware of the images and had carried out an investigation.

A spokesman said: “On Monday 17 June, a 70-year-old man voluntarily attended a central London police station and accepted a caution for assault.”

Police said he was not arrested.

The couple, who have been married for ten years, were photographed having an argument on the terrace of Scott’s seafood restaurant on Sunday June 9 during which Mr Saatchi is seen to hold his wife around the neck with his hands.

Celebrity chef Ms Lawson, 53, the daughter of former chancellor Lord Lawson, was reportedly seen weeping in the street after the incident.

The art collector, who owns the Saatchi Gallery and is a columnist for this newspaper, admitted the couple were having an “intense debate” and the pictures looked “horrific.”

He said: “I held Nigella's neck repeatedly while attempting to emphasise my point.

"There was no grip, it was a playful tiff. The pictures are horrific but give a far more drastic and violent impression of what took place. Nigella's tears were because we both hate arguing, not because she had been hurt.”

He said the couple had “made up” by the time they got home and he claims he told his wife to leave the house “until the dust settled.”

A new exhibition called Paper opened at the Saatchi Gallery on the King’s Road today. Mr Saatchi did not attend the opening though that is not unusual.

The couple married in 2003 and live in London with Ms Lawson's son and daughter from her marriage to journalist John Diamond, who died of cancer in 2001, and Saatchi's daughter from a previous marriage.